LET US GIVE CREDIT WHERE IT IS DUE

By Solomon Boit

While nobody in his right mind can tell Kenyans that all is well in our Local Authorities or any other public institution in Kenya, many critics appear to have clearly lost sight of the deliberate efforts being made by people in Government to change course.

There certainly can be no escaping the fact that Local Authorities are facing many and critical challenges. What cannot be doubted is the resolve by this Government and this ministry in particular to deal with these challenges.

There is irrefutable evidence that things are changing and that, while we have a long way to go before we can claim any measure of success, local authorities have made advances.

Our biggest metropolis, Nairobi has some manifest and isolated success stories that are unmistakable. In the last one and half years alone, the City of Nairobi has planted 6950 trees as part of the beautification programme. This is a programme by the City Government in its pursuit for a better Nairobi.

Though the prevailing drought has slowed down the planting of trees and increased the cost of their maintenance, residents of Nairobi can rest assured that when the rains come, a massive tree planting exercise will be rolled out. And the choice of trees is brilliant. Trees with a higher capability to absorb emissions such as the podo, mukindira and the Nandi Flame have been chosen for this project.

These are trees that will not only clean up the air, but also help regulate daytime temperatures. In some streets e.g. Mama Ngina Street, this is already happening.

Only recently, the Local Government minister, Musikari Kombo, received a call from a lady who called in from Mathare slums to express her gratitude for the erection of floodlights in the sprawling estate. Fifty-two such floodlights are planned for commissioning next month. Related to this, is ongoing work on street lighting and the removal of garbage-mountains that have been an eyesore in the city.

We need as a country to confront four major issues that must permeate the perception of how we engage our local governments. The first is that while we demand cleanliness in our towns, we must take responsibility of the fact we Kenyans are the ones who litter.

The second issue is protection of infrastructure that gets either rehabilitated or installed. All too often, new infrastructure is installed, but vandalised within a week. A street lighting structure can cost up to Sh100,000 to commission. If this kind of structure is vandalised, it compromises the momentum and coverage.

Thirdly, the issue of advocacy where residents demand, without fear, the provision of services, which are rightly theirs. In the just concluded African Peer Review Mechanism, Kenyans were reportedly very dissatisfied with their elected representatives in Local Authorities but were not willing to engage with them actively. It is crucial that this engagement be encouraged so that we can sustain the momentum of improvements that are beginning to happen. The press can assist here in demystifying local governance so that citizens can freely engage with the authorities in their immediate neighbourhoods.

My final comment is more national and relates to the need to acknowledge the good that is happening as loudly as we acknowledge the bad.



The writer is Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government